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Wukong Tests a Two-Layer Quantum Memory Router

A ten-transmon experiment routes data by quantum address, while 82.4% two-layer fidelity and discarded runs expose the scaling cost.

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Conceptual diagram showing a quantum address controlling conditional state transfer to left or right paths, with a note explaining erasure detection and discarded runs.
Conceptual view of quantum-address routing and erasure detection in the Wukong experiment. The paper tested individual routers and a two-layer network; this original diagram is not the processor layout, a measured plot or a reproduction of the paper’s figure.Original QubitWire conceptual diagram based on factual method descriptions in Sheng Zhang et al., Physical Review X 16, 031051 (2026). Illustration: QubitWire · Original QubitWire workFull image credit

Researchers have demonstrated coherent routing operations for a bucket-brigade quantum random-access-memory design on Origin Quantum's Wukong processor. The experiment used ten physical transmon qubits—not ten —to build three individual routers and a cascaded two-layer network. A quantum router uses an address held in superposition to direct data without reading that address first. In a larger memory, such routing could let an algorithm query many locations coherently. The difficult part is preserving that superposition as more routing layers and noisy operations accumulate.

For three individual routers, the paper reports an average fitted random-access-test fidelity of 94.8% after erasure detection. The integrated two-layer network reached 82.4 ± 0.91%, compared with 81.1 ± 0.30% without erasure detection. Those are fidelity measurements, not the paper's separate transmission-efficiency figures.

Erasure detection improves the quality of retained results by identifying leakage into an intermediate energy level and discarding affected runs; it does not repair every execution. In the authors' worst-case simulation, the rejection fraction rises from about 0.4 at one layer to 0.8 at three. That scaling model is not a three-layer hardware result, and the work demonstrates neither complete QRAM nor an application speedup.

The useful next test is a deeper integrated router with acceptance rate, fidelity and end-to-end query cost reported together. Researchers must also reduce crosstalk, leakage and routing-pulse errors so postselection does not consume most attempts as the address tree grows.

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Evidence & context

2 linked sources

Peer-reviewed Physical Review X experiment on ten physical transmon qubits. Reported router fidelities are fitted random-access-test results; erasure detection discards selected runs and does not correct every attempt. The preprint is an earlier version from the same team, not independent replication.

How to read the evidence and dates

An announcement records what an organization stated. An experiment reports an observation. A simulation or resource estimate depends on its assumptions. QubitWire’s analysis connects these sources; the labels are not quality scores.

Published is the article’s first QubitWire publication. Updated marks a substantive content change. Sources checked records a review of the underlying evidence. An older paper can support a new explanation, and another press release about the same work is not independent replication.

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